Knox Park, Cole Park, NCX and Flood Prevention

With all the recent rain, I thought I’d post something interesting which ties Knox Park, Cole Park, and North Central Express way together.

How are all these things related? They are all related when you consider why you don’t have to worry about flooding like properties in East Dallas. You may have heard of the $200 Million project to fix the flooding problem in East Dallas caused by ignoring Mill Creek when that part of town was developed. Rather than building around the natural drainage patterns, developers hastily leveled out creeks and drainage to create home sites. Now, over a century later, many residents of East Dallas know the drill when it comes to heavy rains; head to higher ground and call your foundation repairman. Most know to park their cars in driveways off the street and get ready to see their street become a river. The Mill creek drainage tunnel should solve these problems and create a drainage system which will finally solve a longstanding problem. I won’t get into the hairy details of this project (you can read about them here http://cityhallblog.dallasnews……) but it seems to still have a few hurdles yet to overcome.

Onward to the good news for Knox Park residents…. You can thank the construction of North Central Expressway for the excellent flood control that we enjoy. With the design of NCX being below grade, a massive system was created to prevent it from flooding. Enter Cole Park Stormwater Detention Vault built from 1990-1993. It can hold a massive 71 Million gallons of stormwater. It is accessed from the brick building by the Cole Park Tennis courts. This video shows how massive the facility is beneath Cole Park.